The Italian National Olympic Committee has awarded Stefano Chirone, the coach of a beach handball club in the Tuscany region, the prestigious ‘Bronze Palm with Technical Merit’ award as part of the country’s Olympic Day celebrations. Grosseto Handball has been one of Italy’s best beach handball clubs since it was founded in 2015, winning both the men’s and women’s championships in 2021.
The athletes on the men’s and women’s teams were also recognized for their double victory in the 2021 Italian Championship with the ‘First Place Team in Beach Handball’ award.
The coach and athletes are thrilled to be recognized after years of hard work and commitment to the sport of beach handball. Despite being a relatively new club, they have been the most consistently successful in Italy, with the men’s team winning 9 first place medals and the women’s winning 2two. They also have numerous second and third place medals between them.
The Grosseto men’s team have now reached the European top ten as well, after their best ever Champions Cup performance at the 2021 tournament in Isola delle Femmine. It was a difficult tournament, but they overcame numerous disadvantages, including bad weather, to place tenth overall and second place out of all Italian teams competing.
Chirone has been credited with much of the team’s recent success. He also serves as the Assistant Coach for the Italian National Beach Handball Team, and has been the technical director of Grosseto Handball since 2019. Chirone is known both for his technical abilities, as well as his kindness and sense of humour.
